A five-time convicted felon facing a mandatory 15-year prison sentence for his latest gun offense in Chicago was allowed to walk free because a federal judge ruled it was unconstitutional to ban felons from owning guns.
Glen Prince, 37, already had three armed robberies and aggravated assault of a police officer on his record when he was arrested for robbing three men on a Chicago train in September 2021, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Police found him with cocaine, a stolen credit card, several bullets and a fully loaded Smith & Wesson, despite a federal law that prohibits convicted felons from owning guns.
But his case was dismissed earlier this month by federal Judge Robert Gettleman, who ruled that laws prohibiting felons from owning guns violate Second Amendment rights, citing a landmark Supreme Court decision last year.
The judge readily admitted that “violence plagues our communities and that allowing those who potentially pose a threat to the orderly functioning of society to be armed is a dangerous precedent.”
Federal Judge Robert Gettleman ruled that the ban on felons possessing firearms is unconstitutional. USDC for the Northern District of Illinois
However, he said prosecutors failed to show that criminals are excluded from the “people” protected by the Second Amendment.
“While there are strong political reasons to do everything possible to keep guns off our streets and communities, this court cannot find such a historical analogy,” Gettleman wrote in his decision.
The ruling allowed the release of Glen Prince, a five-time convicted felon who faced a mandatory 15-year prison sentence for robbing three men on a train in September 2021. Cook Country Sheriff’s Office
He claimed that the federal ban on felons owning guns was a greater threat to liberty than a 1791 law that stripped guns from colonists who refused to declare allegiance to the new republic. He said he searched rulings dating back to Rhode Island in 1677 and New Netherland in 1639 and found no precedent for prohibition.
The judge concluded that the law “imposes a far greater burden on the right to keep and bear arms than the historic exclusions from the people’s Second Amendment right.
“The government has not demonstrated why the modern ubiquity of gun violence and the greater lethality of current firearms technology compared to the Foundation justify a different result.”
Prince was ordered released following the ruling, but Chicago police rearrested him on separate charges, accusing him of being an armed habitual offender.
He is being held without bail in the Cook County Jail while federal prosecutors appeal the judge’s ruling, the Tribune reported.
Gettleman ruled that laws prohibiting felons from owning guns violate Second Amendment rights, citing a landmark Supreme Court decision last year. (US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas appears in his official portrait.) REUTERS
But Prince’s case is just one of more than 600 similar cases brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office over the past five years in which investigations by Chicago police and other local authorities are later sent to federal court.
According to the Tribune, at least 50 people have been charged in 2023 alone with violating the federal ban on firearm offenders.
Those in favor of taking advantage of the federal law often see it as a way to ensure that the most violent and repeat offenders stay off the streets.
By declaring the ban unconstitutional, “we will see another increase in crime,” law enforcement consultant Bill Kushner told ABC 7 Chicago.
He also refuted Gettleman’s argument that there is no historical precedent for the ban.
“The federal law prohibiting the possession of firearms by convicted felons dates back to the 1930s, and in 1961 it was expanded to include a blanket lifetime ban on firearms possession for all convicted felons.” “, said.
Kushner added that “carjackings, shootings, it’s not just demonized young people, it’s people feeling like they have a free hand to do whatever they want without fear of repercussions.”
Violent crime in the Windy City has increased more than 20% from the same period last year, according to the Chicago Police Department.
Motor vehicle thefts have more than doubled during that period, with the number of thefts also up 25% on last year.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn